CAR president 'not in complete control'

French and African troops flood into Central African Republic after hundreds of people are killed in days of violence.

The president of the Central African Republic has told Al Jazeera that he is not in complete control of his country.

Michel Djotodia said he could not stop armed groups operating in the country, as a wave of killings left hundreds dead in just a few days.

"It is too much to say I have no control. I control my men. The men I can't control are not my men," said Djotodia, who came to power after a mainly Muslim armed group now known as Seleka overthrew President Francois Bozize earlier this year.

The mostly Muslim former rebels who control the country are patrolling neighbourhoods across the capital of Bangui, despite an order to return to their barracks.

The Red Cross says 400 bodies have been found after three days of fighting between Seleka and a largely Christian armed group named Anti-Balaka ["anti-machete", the weapon of choice of many Seleka fighters].

Meanwhile, thousands more international troops are on their way to the embattled country. The African Union has around 2,500 troops there now, but is increasing that to 6,000. In addition, 1,200 French troops have been bolstered by the arrival of 400 more soldiers.

On Saturday, the country's interim authorities ordered all forces except foreign peacekeepers and the presidential guard off the streets of Bangui, after a hospital in the capital was been attacked by Seleka rebels.

The gunmen reportedly pulled injured victims from Bangui's Amitie hospital, and shot dead at least ten. The hospital has since been abandoned.

Al Jazeera has learned that the Anti-Balaka group contains elements of Bozize's army, and is regrouping outside the capital, awaiting reinforcements.

Hollande's remarks

French President Francois Hollande also said on Saturday it would be difficult for the current head of CAR to stay in place because he let the crisis there unfold.

"I don't want to point fingers but we cannot keep in place a president who was not able to do anything, or even worse, who let things happen," he said in an interview broadcast on the France 24 TV channel.

Hollande said elections should be held before 2015 when Djotodia's mandate ends. "The idea is to head as fast as possible towards elections," he said.

French forces started deploying to the north and west of the country to secure main roads and towns outside the capital, French army spokesman Gilles Jarron said on Saturday.

"Peacekeepers are patrolling the main roads. This is helping keep the looting down. But the atrocities are inside the neighbourhoods," said Amy Martin, head of the UN officer for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

"If they can get into the neighbourhoods, we might start seeing a reduction in these crimes. The level of atrocities and the lack of humanity, the senseless killing defies imagination."

The latest bloodshed started on Thursday as armed Christians from Anti-Balaka raided Muslim neighbourhoods, in a country that has been seeing tit-for-tat violence between rival armed groups since Bozize's downfall in March.

Djotodia, who was leader of the Seleka rebel alliance, has struggled to control his loose band of fighters, many from neighbouring Chad and Sudan.

French troops rumbled into their former colony on Friday, trying to stop violence in the capital and to stabilise the country after the UN Security Council authorised Paris to use force to help African peacekeepers.

Related

As aid groups warn of a humanitarian disaster in the Central African Republic, we ask what the world is doing to help.

Content on this website is for general information purposes only. Your comments
are provided by your own free will and you take sole responsibility for any direct
or indirect liability. You hereby provide us with an irrevocable, unlimited, and
global license for no consideration to use, reuse, delete or publish comments, in
accordance with Community Rules & Guidelines and Terms and Conditions.